


Houston? we have a problem....

by Rydragontuseday



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fatherly David Anderson, Motherly Catherine Halsey, Multiverse, Original Character(s), Platonic Female Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar rayya/Garrus Vakarian, Shepards name is Jane, Timeline What Timeline, What-If, halo/mass effect crossover, more characters to add - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2018-12-21 05:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11936985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rydragontuseday/pseuds/Rydragontuseday
Summary: when the Chief stopped the ring he thought that was the end, when he fought the flood and killed spark he thought that was the end, when he fought the didact he thought that was the end. the chief should be used to crazy shit never ending by now.  but to be fair, how was he supposed to now that Doctor Halsey would open a portal to another universe, one ware humanity isn't at war with the covenant and is still in denial of the reapers? well, here we go again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (up front, telling you all this isn't new blood canon. THE ROOKIE IS ALIVE) so in this fanfic Halsey didn't get taken by the didacts hand. with captain lasky and master chief and the other spartan II's backing her, Lord Hood allows her to stay on board the infinity. and the halo 5 timeline hasn't happened yet, thought team Osiris is around and bucks ODST team are also on board.

"-in the year 2558 the United Earth Government Officially declared an end to the Human covenant war, and signed the Human/sangheli peace accords. with this brings a new age of discovery, while the road will be long and full of hardships, both species will be able to see what can be done together rather then against each other. There are some who question if the war is really over, as the Sangheli are the only former covenant race to sign a peace treaty with Humanity, but even so the two governments push forward to create common ground. This year, under the eyes of the entire galaxy, the UEG and the swords of sanghelios are holding a joint science and research program. 10 thousand science and research personnel across Human space will swap places with 10 thousand Sangheli science and research personnel. This marks the biggest and most expensive joint operation since the signing of the treaty." Rookie was not entirely listening to the HCNN broadcast but this was important to at least know about, especially as this joint program could lead to the UNSC and the Swords to work closer together as well. which would lead to marines working closer with sangheli soldiers, and then by extension he and other ODST's would be working more closely with them. something he was not looking forward too. "In other news the UNSC has released their plans for their next fleet growth with another 600 ships planned to be built and maned by September of 25-"

"would you turn that shit off already, it's given me a damn headache." and with that, what little concentration Rookie had was lost to focus on the people around him. Rookie looked over to Romeo to see him with his head resting on his hand while the other rubs his chest. He was more then likely trying to get rid of a phantom pain, even after all this time, Romeo still has chest pain as well as a slight fear of brutes, though who doesn't? He looked to his left and saw that Dutch and Mickey were pulled out of their own conversation by Romeo’s words. Mickey looked at Romeo in what could be seen as concern, or wariness, if you knew mickey like they did you'd know it's probably a bit of both. Dutch just huffed and smacked Romeo on the head gently, what Dutch thinks is gentle, and looked at the compad in front of Rookie. “Come on sunny, got to deal with the problem eventually. Can't hold up in your ideas of the world, got to see the real ideas.” Romeo looks annoyed at both the hit and the words. “Fuck off, old man, i don't need no hinge heads to work with me or mine.”

“Well, I mean it's good though right?” Mickey said looking around the table then down at the compad broadcasting the news. “ i, well, if we’re working together that means we can fight the storm covenant and what's left of the brutes. We can focus on fighting the real threats rather then be worried about getting stabbed in the back. so, you know, maybe we should help out, with the program, i mean.”

Romeo slammed his hand down onto the table and looked at Mickey, "never trust a hinge head Mickey." he looked towards Dutch "are you going to, even after all the worlds they've burned, the lives they've taken?" Dutch's face seemed to pinch in concentration as he looked back at Romeo. Rookie new he and Romeo had been odst's long before he was even in basic and that they, despite Romeo's constant loss of brain to mouth filter, had a respect for each other that went beyond words and ideals. Rookie had a feeling Romeo was asking Dutch for advice rather then trying to poke fire out of a resting dragon. "humhf." dutch grunted as he looked up to the sealing. "lord knows i'll never forget what those people have done. God said to hold nothing back in battle, for your enemies shall not, but the lord also said to find peace in friendship and to forget hardship when your enemies become your friends." he looked back to Romeo, "i don't trust all of them, but those that wish for peace and continued survival are the ones holding out their hands and hoping we take it. So no i don't trust them, but I'm willing to try it, for humanity, for an end to this shitty war." and with that he turned back to Mickey and started but their conversation again, as if the whole thing hadn't happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chief worry's about his mental state and distance from his family and Captain Lasky gets a message from admiral Hood, while in another place in time and space commander Shepard gets news about her new transfer and captain Anderson deals with political D##k waging.

the Master chief found his self in front of the port observation deck's window again, staring out at the passing stars. John always liked looking at the vastness that is space, always wanting to see the distant stars and planets. Even after he was to old to remember anything before being a spartan, he still remembered the sky of Eridanus III. As the covenant moved ever onward in its destruction of humanity, he found less and less time to look upon this galaxies vast beauty. But now with Spartan command in place and the introduction of the Spartan Iv's John had down time, which he spent either between star watching or spending time with Blue team. though, that was a hard thing to accomplish these days. at no fault on their part the other Spartans and John now had to deal with a rift through their day to day actions. John, the Master Chief could admit when he was at a loss of what to do. He had changed, he new that, but he didn't know by just how much till he was reunited with his Brother and sisters. Cortana, for better or for worse, had broken john in ways not reparable. He was no longer the stock spartan that could fallow orders with out question, no now he wanted answers, assurances that what he was doing was right.

the Chief was pulled from his musings by a call from behind him. "John?" He turned and found the person calling him to be Fred. "Fred" John said back in greeting. He had a pinched look on his face and looked John up and down, as if checking that he was all there. "I was looking around for your, and well, Rolland said you were here. You ok?" Looking for him? Rolland would have told him if someone was trying to find him, had he not heard? The urge to look for a clock so he could find out how long he had been watching the stars was almost over whelming. From the way Fred was looking at him, his surprise most of shown. "Kelly and I were going to hit the shooting range, wanted to see if you wanted in?" The chief had to only think about it for a second, he needed to reconnect with his siblings, this could be a good first step. "sure, lest go." as they descended in the elevator to the tram station, John barely felt the rift between him and the rest of Blue team as he let Fred and Kelly's conversation roll over him.

////.....................................................................................................\\\\\\\

“We have to pick someone people.” Said Admiral Hackett. He seemed to slouch into his desk chair even more as the conversation kept spinning in circles. “We have over 400 candidates it shouldn't be that hard.” Ambassador Udina seemed to take this as both a personal insult and a chance to poke at the ageing soldier. “Yes, 400 candidates that are all military and no political experience among them, I might add.” he said raising his finger in the air as if he was scolding children.

“The spectres are a military arm of the council, it makes sense for them to have military candidates, and every single one of them were approved of by the Alliance interview team.” Anderson said. After about three hours of dossier inspecting, Anderson honestly thought Udina would have put up more of a fight the a huf and crossed arms. “How about Mick Flynn?” Udina said after shuffling the dossier in front of him. “He doesn't have problems with authority like Jorge Harper, but he's still under investigation for taking money incentives.” Hackett said. “What happened?” last Anderson had heard, the investigation was getting dropped. “Alliance jag think he accepted bribes to look the other way on the light frigate refits last year." Hackett answered. Udina's face was pensive as he thought it over. “Hm, even if he didn’t that will be all the council will see. No can’t be him.”

“Frank slim is spotless in his mission list, thoughts?” Udina asked. “He has two previous demotions on his record.” Hackett said flipping through Slim's file. “Why does that matter, so what if he does? he‘s currently slated to be promoted to major. That should look good to them.” Udina said in a almost constipated look. “He also has three reported cases of assault in his name, is that the face we want to show the galaxy?” Anderson said after finding Slim's rap sheet.

"well, what about Shepard?"

////.....................................................................................................\\\\\\\

"Captain?" Roland said before appearing on a small hologram podium next to Lasky's desk. Lasky turned away from his paper work and looked at Rolland in concern, Rolland very rarely appears in his cabin, and its never good. "whats going on, Rolland." he said pushing back from the desk and fully facing Rolland. "A message from Fleet Admiral Hood, and sir, its not good news." Lasky sighed and looked over at his main computer screen as the message started to play.

"Tom, I've got information for you and your not going to like it. I hope you've been paying attention to the military news of New Concord. You'd better be sitting for this."

////............................................................................................................................................\\\\\\\\\\\

Lt. Commander Jane Shepard was not a vindictive woman by any means, but she was definitely give hell to who ever gave her supply and boarding detail. She was a commander for Christ sake, not some grunt, she had better things to do then stand around filing papers and helping crewmen find the toilet. she felt like sighing as she ordered the maintenance droids ware to move the rations of food and water, cleaning supplies, and other essentials. how the crew of the New London went through so many MRE's she would never know.

"having fun Shep?" Jane turned around to find Lt. Alenko walking down the cargo ramp with a smile on his face. "oh, you know me Kaidan, I love supplies acquisition." His laugh could have been heard from space. "ha, so anything interesting happen yet? any petty squabbles, drunken fights?" Kaidan asked as he stopped next to Jane. She smiled and looked out over the see of people moving about the space port. Retrofit and repair crews where checking the New London's exterior armor and shielding plates, while her crew moved in and out of her, either head to shore leave of coming back from it. "Nope, nothing like that yet, had a few bots running into each other but no major problems yet," all in all, Shepard had to admit it had been a very quiet shift. but like every thing that she does, she had to jinks it.

"Commander Shepard!" A voice called out behind her and she turned to see what this new person wanted. As it turned out Jane couldn't have been more right about 'new', the person that had called out to her was young, seemingly to young to be a soldier, if you asked her. He had blond hair and brown eyes, he was scrony but seemed to hold some muscle under those dress clothes. He came to a stop a few feet from the ramp, and saged slightly with his hands on his knees and he gasped for air. "your commander Shepard right?" he said looking up at them. "I am, what to you need?" Jane said as she walked down the ramp to meet him.

The soldier, kid really, stood strait and snapped into a salute. "PFC, Wallace Jankins ma'am. On behalf of Captain David Anderson, I have orders to deliver this package to you and to tell you they contain your new orders, Ma'am." He held out a black and red case with the N7 logo in the corner. as she took it from him she had the sudden feeling things were going to be very interesting from here on out.

////............................................................................................................................................\\\\\\\\\\\

"Roll the vid Rolland." Commander Palmer said standing next to Lasky. Across from him was blue team and team Majestic, both seeming not to know what to do with the other. Blue team unused to spartan IV's even after all these months, and team Majestic not knowing how to handle being so close to their living legends. Lasky held back the urge to smile at the thought of Spartans, the heroes of humanity, acting like teenagers at their first school dance. so to stop himself he turned back to Rolland and waited for the video to start. "I assume you want to start without the message overlay?" Rolland's smile and tilted head showing off his love of poking Sara Palmer. "Rolland" Palmer said, crossing her arms and starring him down. after a few seconds the image or Rolland was replaced with a 3D imagery of a planet.

"last week, New Concord went dark, and has of yet to respond to any communications. after a full 24 hour loss of contact with both the UNSC forces on the ground and civilian broadcasts, a forward battle group was sent to find out what was happening. while this sort of thing happens from time to time, be it for repairs or unforeseen complications, its very worrying that communication for a whole planet would be lost." Lasky took a second to look at the assembled teams, majestic dressed in only their under armor while blue team stood stock with their armor on. all in all they seemed somewhat bored, the next bit would get their attention. "as of 42 hours ago, that same battle group has disappeared."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chief and co get ready for the mission to New concord, Dr. Halsey makes an interesting discovery, and Cerberus is planning something.

Forward Battle groups often consisted of 4 to 5 ships, 2 to 3 Charon class corvette's, 1 Paris class Light frigate, and possibly a Halberd class destroyer. Because of the severity of the mission 9 ships were sent, the original 3 corvettes and 2 frigates of the battle group were met on route by an additional 2 corvette's, 1 Halberd, and a Halcyon class Light cruiser. While there are those that would oppose the movement of so many ships over a simple loss of contact with an out of the way colony, calling it a waste of time and resources. No one could deny the problem now that these ships had gone dark investigating New Concord. The Master Chief found it petty and disgusting that while people could be dying, generals and politicians were fighting over money. It was a wounder that Humanity had made it as far as it had with the way politics worked, though the Chief thought, that was mostly due to men and Women like Admiral Hood.

as the war against the covenant got longer and bloodier, as world after world fell, the UNSC and more specifically Admiral hood, was given more and more power inside the government almost to a point one could not tell military from politician. after the war ended and power was to be shifted back into control of the civilian government, there were some who voiced against this, and wanted Hood and the other admirals to stay in power, many calling them the true leaders of humanity. Admiral Hood was apposed to this, and relinquished power after the first, truly stable, election could be held. a small spiteful part of john, thought about how he shouldn't have, as since the politicians got back into major power, there had been constant in fighting between earth and the colonies. This part of him was then smashed back into his subconscious because this is what was right, a government forms a military to defend itself not run it.

as the chief arrived at the hangar ware the other Spartans were assembling, he couldn't help but wounder what would have happened if his team had been deployed instead of the battle group. as the chief stepped off the elevator he could see majestic and Blue team gathered into one side of the hangar near a set of pelicans and another group of Spartans, Castle and Crimson teams, if the chief is correct, gathered into the opposite side of the hangar with there own set of pelicans. each team seemed to be gearing up, grabbing weapons and ammo for a verity of scenarios. as the chief walked over to blue team, he passed several scorpions and could help but question if they should take a few with them. he then let out a small huff of air and chuckled internally as he remembered Sergeant Johnson. _“When I joined the core, we didn't have any fancy shmancy tanks. we had sticks, 2 sticks and a rock for the whole platoon, and we had to share the rock.”_ Fred looked up from ware he was reassembling his DMR and waved over to John, the chief let a smile settle on his face as he joined his brother and sisters.

"late as always John, the techs in Spartan ops get a little flirty?" Fred asks with a smirk and a wink. While Fred never acted on them or moved forward in any of them, he was quiet the ladys man ware ever he went and, loath as John was to admit it, somehow he was too, at least in his own way. Maybe it was because of him being the leader of the remaining spartan II's or maybe because of how the media and the military made him out to be a hero, either way Fred loved to tease him about it. "no" John said in reply, quick, simple and to the point.

/////...........................................\\\\\\\\\\\

"interesting" Dr. Halsey says as she looks over her labs main console. the Doctor was trying to find anything in the data packets the battle group sent just before going dark, any information could help turn the tide in her Spartans favor, and she was keen on finding said information. the problem was the final packets were garbled at best, incomprehensible at worst, but one thing stood out, a set of repeating letters, all in different orders each time, but there was a pattern if you looked hard enough. "Roland, can you bring up the final data packets from New Concord and the Gaia Battle group side by side at 3.425 seconds after retrieval point, and leave it on repeat please." The monitor changes and shows both pieces of data, at the same time Roland appears on a holo-display in the corner of the room. "Find something Doctor?" he said as he crossed his holographic arms and looked over her monitors, though this was mostly for show as he already had the information in his data core. "perhaps, it could just be a failed data transfer but i don't believe in coincidence." Halsey looks over the information as it loops every 12 seconds, then after the third repeat Halsey stops the streaming data and highlights a few lines of text. "there."

After a few seconds, which is really minutes for A.I's, Roland shifts his body and full turns to the doctor uncrossing his arms. "i don't see it doc, what are you on about?" Halsey shakes her head, "perspective seems to be something the latest generation of AI's lack i see, even with all that intelligence you have Roland, you can't use it effectively if you don't have perspective." Roland was quick to retort, "sure Doctor, in the future ill be sure to see things from the view of a aggravated old woman." Halsey smiled and moved the highlighted code over to another monitor. "if only that was what i am, then i could live a happy life. To answer your question, it some kind of code, and not a human one." this got the AI's attention. "not human?" "yes, its Forerunner in origin, and incorrectly translated to Human Common." as Halsey says this the repeating letters switch from English to forerunner script. "in context it could mean something, but with out a catalyst it would be nigh impossible to understand. Lucky for us impossible is what i work with every day." Haley seems to do something on her personal com-pad and not a second later the forerunner script switches back to English, this it forming words instead of random sequences."interesting" Halsey says looking over the information as Roland's avatar disappears. "I'll inform the Captain." Halsey makes a shewing gesture and records her findings. "very interesting." she then turns from the monitor and walks out of the lab, leaving the screen to replay the lines of text uninterrupted.

Inform Saren, we have found a-......-Humans are here as well-.....-Geth, commence extermination, leave no human alive.

/////...........................................\\\\\\\\\\\

"and this report is accurate?" the illusive man said pulling the cigar from his mouth to tap the ash into a try on his armchair. "you doubt the information or me?" a voice said from a 3d holo-display in the front of the room. its appearance was blackened and misshapen from some sort of military grade disruption device, its voice too was garbled and changed just enough that the Illusive man's voice authentication programs could only tell it was a man speaking. "please, as if i could really trust the shadow broker," he said taking a long drag of his cigar. "if you don't like the information, there are plenty more people out there that would pay much more for it then you, mister Illusive" the shadow broker said again, in what seemed to be a smug voice. "well, if my sources can confirm this information then it seems you may have a regular buyer, Shadow Broker." The Brokers 3d projection disappeared shortly after that, leaving the Illusive man alone with a new problem.

The monitors in front of him showed pictures and text audio from a conversation between admiral Hackett and captain David Anderson about possible crew replacements for his new ship, and a name that kept appearing was Jane Shepard, commander aboard the SSV New London. It was strange for a man of Captain Anderson stature to request another of great stature like Commander Shepard for a simple test run of a new ship. Seems his hunch was correct. He didn't care what story the Alliance tried to pull, he new a shady operation, hell his new recruits could do better at cover ups. Cerberus already had intel that this new ship, this Normandy was some kind of stealth ship and he had people trying to get the designs on it so his construction teams could get to work on how to build it them selves. turns out this is one of the few times the Alliance was keeping information so tight even his operatives couldn't get a hold of it. the Illusive man took a drag of his cigar and it a button on his arm chair, another 3d holo appeared. "get me everything you can on a Commander Jane Shepard, seems we have a new objective."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long, been a crazy busy few weeks. I also had to think how i wanted this story to continue, I have this great picture in my head and written down about the chief and Shepard saving both their galaxies but i still need to work the kinks out of how they get there. Don't you just hate it when you come up with something awesome but then you have to explain it?
> 
> mass effect- I really liked the idea of a shadow broker, someone or some people pulling the strings from some dark room. I wish they had done more with it in the games, like run missions against the brokers operatives or get missions from the broker, things like that. In my head i feel like the shadow broker would sell to the highest bidder but also sell to the runner ups unless the highest payed even more for exclusive info.
> 
> halo-in the games we never really see the chief have any kind of emotional response outside a select few, i think this is because of a bunch of reasons but mostly because theres only so many ways you can show emotions on a character with no visible face. even with this though they did a great job and made me feel that the master chief was really destroyed after cortana, and in the comics blue team were their own makeshift family, so i feel they would worry about Johns mental state but not out right question him or his views. I also think its similar to Captain Lasky, he knows somethings wrong but doesn't know how to talk with him about it, so he ignores it for the most part. I also am going to use an OC plot device to help the chief move passed Cortana and to give Lasky and Halsey some peace of mind. 
> 
> Halsey was a bit different for me, I always liked her as she genuinely seemed to love the Spartan II's, even if that is because she see them as her greatest work rather then real people. I also genuinely hated how 343 basically made her into a winy old lady in halo 4:spartan ops then got rid of all that animosity she and commander palmer had from it in halo 5. and the Janus key? what happened to that? a way to track every forerunner installation and ship in the known galaxy and you just forgot about it from one game to the next? guess they made too big of a plot bunnie that they had to move without it.


End file.
